Air traffic control delays by US airport

Among the 39 airports with a DelayGuard airport page (22 delay guides and 17 statistics pages), Fort Lauderdale (FLL) had the highest share of departures with a BTS National Aviation System (NAS) delay: 16.09% of 264,272 completed departures from January 2023 to December 2025.

BTS NAS delays cover non-extreme weather, airport operations, heavy traffic volume and air traffic control, so this is not an air-traffic-control-only count. Miami (MIA) was next at 14.87%, Orlando (MCO) at 14.40%, and San Jose (SJC) was lowest at 6.46%.

Source: DelayGuard analysis of US DOT/BTS data, January 2023 to December 2025.

Which airports have the most air traffic control delays?

The share is departures, not arrivals. A completed departure counts when it was not cancelled and not diverted. It has an NAS delay when BTS NASDelay is greater than zero. BTS fills that field only if the flight arrived 15 or more minutes late, and it does not say whether the minutes accrued at FLL or somewhere else on the route.

Across these 39 airports, 11.08% of 14,323,349 completed departures had NASDelay greater than zero. Across every origin in the files, the share was 10.59% of 20,588,136 completed flights.

On 15 May 2026 the FAA published its 2026–2028 Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan. The plan sets a staffing target of 12,563 certified professional controllers and says about 11,000 were deployed as of April 2026, with hiring targets of 2,200 in FY 2026, 2,300 in FY 2027 and 2,400 in FY 2028. On 16 October 2026 the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association announced a 2.8% pay increase. The FAA said the increase takes effect 18 October 2026 and is "retroactive to the beginning of the year." Those are FAA figures, not BTS delay rates.

NAS delay share for departures, January 2023 to December 2025. Rank 1 is the highest share. 39 airports.
Fort Lauderdale (FLL)16.09%1264,27242,525
Miami (MIA)14.87%2319,02447,441
Orlando (MCO)14.40%3476,05468,548
JFK13.60%4352,76147,969
Newark (EWR)13.56%5376,76651,103
Philadelphia (PHL)12.98%6282,61536,684
O'Hare (ORD)12.65%7850,994107,635
Logan (BOS)12.61%8418,69952,781
DFW12.45%9893,078111,166
Charlotte (CLT)12.25%10598,57673,335
LaGuardia (LGA)11.76%11448,13052,718
Sea-Tac (SEA)11.72%12486,93157,086
Reagan National (DCA)11.66%13411,69247,998
San Diego (SAN)11.39%14278,40631,722
Harry Reid (LAS)11.31%15556,96063,014
Houston Intercontinental (IAH)11.30%16339,04438,299
Denver (DEN)11.06%17902,80499,860
BWI10.96%18286,89331,455
Cincinnati (CVG)10.87%19112,50912,235
Midway (MDW)10.82%20235,20125,443
Dulles (IAD)10.61%21157,99616,766
Atlanta (ATL)10.24%22979,661100,324
Austin (AUS)10.03%23261,44926,222
SFO9.78%24409,74440,062
Detroit (DTW)9.77%25374,95236,651
Minneapolis (MSP)9.31%26357,34433,272
St. Louis (STL)9.31%26189,10917,606
Love Field (DAL)9.26%28215,35019,945
Los Angeles (LAX)9.00%29572,74151,544
San Antonio (SAT)8.58%30121,33510,407
John Wayne (SNA)8.48%31131,59011,154
Burbank (BUR)8.32%3289,5637,450
Hobby (HOU)8.18%33165,43813,538
Sky Harbor (PHX)7.73%34561,85243,433
Salt Lake (SLC)7.70%35335,78825,843
Ontario (ONT)7.35%3675,7725,569
Oakland (OAK)6.72%37120,8338,114
Sacramento (SMF)6.57%38164,39610,796
San Jose (SJC)6.46%39147,0279,492

Which routes have the most NAS delays?

Same definition, counted on the origin-destination pair. Only pairs with at least 2,000 completed departures from one of the 39 airports are ranked. The table is the 25 highest shares.

25 routes with the highest NAS delay share among origin-destination pairs with at least 2,000 completed departures. 1,963 pairs met that floor.
PHL to SJU26.36%14,3481,146
FLL to AUS21.75%22,993651
FLL to LAS21.55%32,798603
LAS to SFO21.54%417,2363,713
BOS to PBI21.02%55,8941,239
MCO to SAN20.85%62,024422
BOS to FLL20.68%79,3301,929
CLT to EWR20.57%811,2522,315
EWR to SJU20.54%96,5441,344
BOS to SJU20.28%105,7151,159
FLL to ORD20.13%118,5701,725
FLL to PIT19.92%123,092616
SAN to SFO19.89%1318,9873,776
MCO to ACY19.78%142,679530
BOS to MCO19.47%1514,2482,774
CLT to SFO19.44%164,706915
IAD to EWR19.32%174,638896
DFW to MCO19.31%1814,3982,780
PHL to SEA19.17%193,213616
FLL to CLE19.14%203,312634
BWI to SJU19.02%213,995760
SEA to SFO18.99%2219,9673,791
MIA to SEA18.97%232,630499
FLL to DFW18.89%248,3521,578
FLL to EWR18.87%2515,1392,856

How is an air traffic control delay counted?

BTS defines National Aviation System (NAS) delays and cancellations as those attributable to the national aviation system from a broad set of conditions, such as non-extreme weather conditions, airport operations, heavy traffic volume, and air traffic control. This share is completed departures (not cancelled, not diverted) from January 2023 through December 2025 with NASDelay > 0. The airport is the origin. BTS records NAS minutes only on flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late, and does not assign those minutes to a specific airport.

The title says air traffic control because that is the common search. The metric is the broader BTS NAS category. Months counted: 2023-01, 2023-02, 2023-03, 2023-04, 2023-05, 2023-06, 2023-07, 2023-08, 2023-09, 2023-10, 2023-11, 2023-12, 2024-01, 2024-02, 2024-03, 2024-04, 2024-05, 2024-06, 2024-07, 2024-08, 2024-09, 2024-10, 2024-11, 2024-12, 2025-01, 2025-02, 2025-03, 2025-04, 2025-05, 2025-06, 2025-07, 2025-08, 2025-09, 2025-10, 2025-11, 2025-12. Decimal half-even to 2 decimal places (percent and percentage-point differences of those percents). Script: script/buildDataStudies.py. This is not the DelayGuard prediction model, and it is not a live FAA ground stop.

Informational only. This is not legal advice and it is not an FAA finding.

Download the table

The CSV matches the table in its published rank order.

Cite this

DelayGuard, "Air traffic control delays by US airport," https://www.delayguard.ai/research/air-traffic-control-delays-by-airport, analysis of US Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics On-Time Reporting data, January 2023 to December 2025. Generated 2026-10-20.

Related